Teleport This (19 page)

“I have developed a basic understanding of the physics involved.”

“Well, don’t keep me in suspense. Is it Star Wars or Star Trek?”

“A lot like Star Trek.”

“I knew it.”

“I don’t even want to know what they’re talking about back there,” Lyn commented to Jon. “I thought I was making progress, but it seems all my hard work evaporated in a matter of minutes. It must be a critical mass type deal, the more geeks you get together, the worse they are.”

Gilbert and Simon were discussing the fact that Star Wars and Star Trek, two of the most popular science fiction productions of the twentieth century, employed two different methods for traveling faster than the speed of light. Star Wars uses hyperspace, a different type of space that exists in the sci-fi universe where things can move faster than the speed of light. In the Star Trek universe, spaceships stay in regular space, but bend the rules of physics by warping space as it travels through it, allowing things to travel faster than the speed of light.

“So how do the engines work?” asked Simon.

“They create an event singularity that inverts the fabric of space-time while simultaneously converting extraordinary amounts of pseudo mass into pseudo energy and using that to propel the ship through a stream of pseudo space-time where velocity is only limited by the amount of energy you pour into it.”

“That’s pseudo ridiculous.”

“I know, but we either accept their physics or resign ourselves to the possibility that magic exists.”

“And there’s no hyperspace?” asked Simon.

“There is, but things actually move slower there.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Welcome to the universe. Did you meet Ellie the robot?”

“No, I haven’t met any robots. Where were there robots?”

“I’m in here,” said Ellie2 from inside Simon’s pants pocket.

“Dude, there’s a voice coming from inside your pants. Did you get some type of weird implant?”

Simon reached into his pocket and pulled out Ellie2.

“Hi, Gilbert!” said Ellie2 as a six inch high 3D projection of Ellie the robot appeared above the device being held by Simon.

“Hey, Ellie! Is that you inside there? You look like an iPhone. Well, I’m glad to see you’re still alive and kicking. I’m sure Simon found you very helpful.”

“Are you kidding? They got so plastered one night I had to give them step by step directions on how to walk. And they’re calling me Ellie2 now because their brains can’t cope with the idea of two things with the same name.”

“Hey, Ellie2, do the thing,” said Simon.

The six inch figure of Ellie2 became a brunette in a white robe-like garment with an ear muff hairstyle.

“Help me, Simon and Gilbert, you’re my only hope,” the image said before disappearing in shimmering static.

“See-through robe,” said Gilbert. “Nice touch.”

A short while later everyone was sitting comfortably in the galley munching on nachos, sipping Margaritas and telling their respective stories.

“What did you do to make that Macnair guy so mad at you?” Franco asked Jon.

“Yeah, what did you do, his wife or his daughter?” added Talia.

“Nothing like that, believe me. That’s something I could deal with,” said Jon. “This started out as a business deal. I was hired to set up a secure network for what I was told was a legitimate business venture. It was intergalactic in scope and required extreme encryption. Well, you know me,” he said to Ellie, “the more I got into it, the more things didn’t add up and the more interested I got. Then I was approached by our mutual friend Agent Tomas. Turns out that Macnair wanted all his operations all over the universe to begin reporting real-time on their bits and pieces. Seems Macnair wanted to centralize his accounting so he could cut down on the skimming.”

“How very corporate of him,” said Ellie.

“By this time I had realized that he was controlling illegal drug trafficking, forced labor, prostitution, you name it. He takes it from where it’s legal, ships it to where it’s illegal and sells it to the folks that are too lazy or cheap to move.”

“So all that stuff is legal on some worlds? Even in a society as advanced as this one?” asked Lyn.

“Oh sure,” continued Franco. “Last census counted close to two quadrillion people and believe me, they come in all shapes, sizes, fetishes and addictions. Even if only 0.0001% are mega-kinky or drug crazy, that’s still billions of people. More than enough to colonize a bunch of planets where no one cares what they do, especially the crappy ones with limited habitable space.”

“Anyway, at some point Tomas convinced me to run a data feed to his office,” continued Jon. “When the Feds had enough information, they came down on all of Macnair’s operations.”

“I could see how that could make him a tad upset with you and I guess it’s just our bad luck to be guilty by association,” said Talia.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” said Jon, “but let’s see what we can do to clear all this up. Buy the way, where are we?”

“We’re still in sector C368. I’ve got us tucked away in a large, slow moving debris field,” said Talia.

“Alright,” said Jon taking out his device and setting it at the far end of the table. “Let’s list everything we know and see if we can connect some dots.” His device immediately projected a large whiteboard-like screen above itself. “Do you recognize any of these people?” Images of all three players from the space station were now displayed.

“The first guy on the left is PJ the pirate,” said Ellie. “It was his crew that hit us after we picked up our cargo.”

“He’s also the guy that raided Earth and grabbed Alicia,” said Jon. “He was getting his orders from this guy next to him, who in turn was working for this next guy on the right and that guy was with Alicia when I arrived on her planet.”

Holt looked up from his fingers. “Hey, I think they got too many guys. That’s good for us, right?”

“So do you think Alicia is behind it all?” asked Franco, ignoring Holt.

“I don’t think so,” Jon said. He saw Lyn’s left eyebrow raise and added, “Not that I don’t think she’s capable, I just can’t figure out what her motive would be. She has everything. She’s princess of her own planet.”

“I’m sure it’s different out here,” began Gilbert, “but on Earth it’s the people that have the most that typically want more. Especially celebrities.”

“No, it’s pretty much the same way here,” said Franco.

“I’m still not convinced,” said Jon, “but let’s add her to the board. Let’s add Macnair as well. I think we can all agree that he wasn’t involved with the Nurridium before, but he is now.”

“Don’t forget the person that put the Nurridium in the rock to begin with,” added Talia. “Maybe we should take another look at that mining camp.”

“That’s not a bad thought. Let’s see what we can find out about it,” said Jon and the screen partitioned itself with notes from the discussion on one side and information about the mining camp began scrolling on the other. “Well look at that, your mining camp is a minimal security corrections facility.”

“Most are,” said Ellie. “Nothing strange about that.”

“But even minimal criminals have connections,” said Jon. “The first half of the puzzle is becoming clear.”

“Really?” asked Simon.

“Well, it’s becoming clearer,” said Jon. “Whoever found the Nurridium probably contacted this guy, the one from Alicia’s home world, though I’m still not sure why. And then somehow Alicia got involved.”

“Now that’s all well and good, but what are we going to do next?” asked Talia. “We still got this big chunk of Nurridium kicking around and I’m afraid I’m beginning to lose interest. Interest that the bank should be paying me, but isn’t because I haven’t deposited my share because we haven’t collected the reward for the stupid thing. Let’s figure out how we’re going to get in touch with the Feds and negotiate a deal now that things went sour with Monti. We’re losing money here.”

“I hesitate to mention this, but what about our old buddy Agent Tomas?” Lyn asked. “He’s a Fed. He must have some contacts in the organization. He seems like the type that would get along well with the other cops.”

“He might not be very sympathetic to our cause,” began Talia. “Last we saw of him, he was heading off to pull the troops together and go after the Nurridium that wasn’t actually where we told him it was.”

“I’m not sure if that will matter too much,” said Jon. “I checked on him while I was at the ICC and there’s no record of him leaving Monti’s.”

“We saw him teleport out,” Gilbert said.

“Monti seems like too slick a character to leave an open access teleport available for anyone to use,” said Jon.

“Tomas had to jimmy it a bit first,” said Ellie.

“Monti probably had a few safeguards set up just for show,” said Jon. “Tomas probably set off a ton of alerts playing around with it and went straight into the buffer.”

“What’s this Monti guy like?” asked Simon. “How much danger is Tomas in?”

“Monti’s not the violent type,” said Ellie. “He’s too worried about his carpet, but I bet he’s not opposed to calling in help when he needs it. We should go back and check on the situation.”

“What?” said Talia.

“Are you crazy?” said Franco.

“They were going to cut off our arms,” reminded Holt.

“I know what this is about,” said Talia.

“Drop it, Talia,” said Ellie.

“I saw the look.”

“I said to drop it.”

“Not the look,” groaned Jon.

“What’s the look?” asked Gilbert.

“You can always tell when Ellie falls for someone, she gets this look,” said Talia widening her eyes and opening her mouth in a crooked sort of way so her bottom jaw is out of alignment with the top. “And I saw the look when agent boy was removing her restraints and again when he was on the teleport saying good-bye to her.”

“Look, the guy saved our lives, we owe him one,” said Ellie. “And Lyn makes a good point; we can trust him to deal with the Feds for us, especially if we help him out of this jam.”

“I’m with you, sis,” said Jon.

“Count me in,” said Talia.

“Thank you, Talia,” said Ellie.

“Well, I’m obligated on two fronts. First, this is pretty much what you pay me for and second, well, we’re girlfriends and it’s up to me to help you get some.”

“I’m in,” said Gilbert, causing all heads to turn in his direction. “Hey, I did okay last time. I shot all the right people.”

“You did real good last time,” said Talia. “Who knows, maybe you have a knack for this type of thing.”

“I’ll go too,” said Lyn. “Gil’s mother is paying me to watch out for him.”

“I know,” said Ellie looking at Simon. “She’s going, so you’re going. It would have been easier to ask for volunteers to remain behind.” Franco and Holt raised their hands.

21.

Ellie led her rescue team to one of the freighter’s cargo holds. Inside was a ship much smaller than the freighter, but a good deal larger than the shuttle. In addition to a control bridge, it had a galley and dining area, lounge, medical station and a handful of private sleeping cabins. The plan was to leave the freighter tucked away where it was and use this ship to travel back and forth to Monti’s hideaway.

“Nice little ship,” said Jon as they entered the cargo bay.

“I took it in trade from a business acquaintance,” said Ellie. “He was retiring and wanted to move his entire house to a different world. He and his wife didn’t want to leave it behind because it held too many memories for them, like their kids growing up or some crap like that. He didn’t need the ship anymore so he used it as part of the payment. It needed some work so I took the opportunity to upgrade the engines. It’ll get us there quicker than this thing,” Ellie said waving at the freighter that surrounded them. “And, Gilbert, you’ll be happy to know it even has shields and cannons.”

They entered the ship and Talia piloted it out of the cargo bay and into open space.

“Here’s the plan,” said Jon. “I’ve looked over the shuttle recordings from the previous visit and I’ve identified an out of the way landing area for the ship. We’ll come in from the north and follow this track in low and out of sight. After we land, Ellie, Talia, Gilbert and I will move on to Monti’s estate. Simon and Lyn will remain here as backup and guard the ship.”

Talia spent some time familiarizing Lyn and Simon with the ship’s flight systems, as well as its weapons and defensive systems.

“I’ve preset a course back to the freighter,” said Talia, “just in case you need to make a quick getaway. Now there’s always the chance that you may have to move the ship to some other location instead of returning to the freighter. Do either of you have any flying experience?”

“I have my pilot’s license for small aircraft,” said Lyn.

“Great,” said Talia. “Manual control for this bird is pretty easy since the ship’s nav system handles all the vectoring. Show me the control configuration you’re use to and we’ll see if we can mimic it here.” Talia set up a flight control station for Lyn and then moved on to hand weapons.